Arsene Wenger insists that Arsenal would have still signed Thierry Henry from Juventus in 1999, even if the Gunners hadn’t sold Nicolas Anelka to Real Madrid.
Anelka spent two years at Arsenal after Wenger signed him from PSG in 1997. He scored 26 league goals in 76 appearances.
However, in 1999, Le Sulk signed for Real Madrid for £22.3m and Henry was brought in for £11m.
Wenger insists that although Arsenal did need to find Anelka’s replacement, he would have signed Henry anyway, regardless of whether his predecessor was still there or not.
“We would still have signed him because I made him start at Monaco when he was 17 years old,” the boss told Arsenal Player.
“I felt that when I watched him at Juventus that he had lost belief and confidence. I knew he was a very intelligent player and I would still have tried to sign him. Whether we would have had enough money, that is another question!
“Thierry was more able to play on the wings and Anelka was more a central player. I believe as well that they were friends, so they wanted to play together. They come from the same area of Paris, they knew each other when they were very young and they are good friends.
“I think that helps to accommodate both. Thierry played central because Nicolas moved away and I thought I would try to play him central, but at the start when he came he was not supposed to be a centre forward.”
As we all know, the rest is history. Henry, who turns 40-years-old today (Thursday), went on to become one of, if not the, most successful Arsenal player to ever don the red and white.
He scored 174 Premier League goals in 254 appearances and is a living legend with his image cast in bronze outside the Emirates.
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Whether Wenger was actually going to sign him if Anelka stayed or not doesn’t matter. What does matter is that he did and Henry went on to have a dazzling career in north London.
After signing for Arsenal, Henry also went on to be capped 123 times for the France national team and managed to net an impressive 51 goals in that time.